


The Songs of the Void

by for_t2



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alien Mythology/Religion, Angst and Tragedy, Archaeology, Creation Myth, Cults, End of the World, Gen, Historical Inaccuracy, Science Fiction, Singing, The Void, Translation, Xenolinguistics, academic conferences
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-24
Updated: 2020-07-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:22:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25493800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/for_t2/pseuds/for_t2
Summary: Excerpt from the Abridged Transcripts of the 235th Interstellar Conference on Xenoarcheology and Xenoanthropology: Presentation on the Final-Era Religious Sects of the Toemma Star System: A New and Complete Translation of the First Stanza of the Void-Singers Religious TextAccessed with permissions from the Interstellar Society of Alien Studies, Earth Section





	The Songs of the Void

A famous mid-20th century Earth saying hold that in space, no one can you scream. It’s a statement that’s both born of the uncertainties surrounding humanity’s first tentative steps into space and of the particularly human metaphysical value placed on physical sound waves as a means of communication. It is, after all, entirely possible to send and receive a scream through space via electromagnetic waves.

The saying is also a product of the conception of outer space as a static emptiness, a quite literal nothingness. While there are elements of truth to that conception, many species across the galaxy have made advances in physics demonstrating that the story of the void is a more complicated on. And, of course, that conception was never dominant in all sentient species.

Which brings us to the Void-Singers.

The story of the Toemma star system is a famous tragedy. As far as xenoarcheology and astrophysics has been able to reconstruct, the story goes something like this: as the system’s sun expanded in the latter days of its life, one of the mid-system planets thawed and quickly gave birth to life, which in turn evolved rapidly (for reasons not entirely understood), which in turn gave birth to sentience. And whereas it took humanity over 10 000 years to go from agriculture to spaceflight, the Toemmer were able to do so on scale of just hundreds of years.

But unlike humanity, the Toemmer were never able to invent faster-than-light spaceflight.

Nor were they able to stop their star from dying.

And they knew it. They panicked. Their society fractured, splintering into thousands of political factions and religious sects, all believing they alone could find the answer to saving themselves.

None of them succeeded.

Work on reconstructing and cataloguing all the different factions has been a long-ongoing project involving multiple species, and important progress has been made. One faction that has been of particular interest to human researchers has been the Void-Singers.

Little is known about the sect, but what is known is that they were one of the oldest sects, yet had been pushed to the outer fringes of Toemmer society by the time their society collapsed. It is also known that they placed enormous metaphysical important on the power of signing and on the power of the void. They believed that the world was born from the void and the world would ultimately die in the void, and, as such, true salvation was to be found in embracing the cycle of the void.

(It is unknown if that belief offered any comfort in their last days)

And today, for the very first time, we are able to show you the fruit of years of research – the very first complete translation of the first stanza of the Void-Singers holy text. The next stanzas are still being translated, and the original rythmm hasn’t yet been determined, but this is still a significant breakthrough. So, for the first time in over 20 million years: let the void sing!

**1\. The Song of Before**

The before could not last. So it sang.

The before was as the now. So it sings.

The before will be as the after. So it will sing.

The before knew neither time nor dimension, neither life nor death, neither silence nor voice.

The before could not last.

The before is neither the start nor the end, neither up nor down, neither original nor reflection.

The before is as the now.

The before will be neither the truth nor the lie, neither pain nor joy, neither despair nor hope.

The before will be as the after.

So we sing.

**2\. The Song of Tragedy**

The void emerged. It sang.

The void endures. It sings.

The void will fade. It will still sing.

With the emergence came truth. But the void could not understand. So it sang.

With the endurance comes life. But the void cannot sustain. So it sings.

With the fading will come death. But the void will not feel. So it will sing.

The void was the first out from the before.

The void is the most of the now.

The void will be the last out of the after.

The void was and is and will be.

So we sing.

**3\. The Song of Creation**

The void sang.

The void was in ceaseless, relentless, eternal turmoil.

The void was everywhere, above, below, around.

The everywhere was turmoil and the turmoil was everywhere.

From the void came the energy to create.

From the void came the matter to be.

The energy was matter and the matter was energy.

The void sings.

The energy sparked, burned.

The matter found each other, made solid.

The turmoil became energy, the matter became everywhere.

The void was in between and in between was everything.

The void surrounds and everything surrounds the void.

The void will sing.

So we sing.

**4\. The Song of Loneliness**

There was fire, there was light, and there was sound.

There was rock, and there was water, and there was air.

There was a universe.

But there was no one.

There was no one to feel the fires or see the lights or hear the sounds.

There was no one to shape the rocks or flow with the waters or breath the airs.

There was a universe.

But in that universe was no one.

And in that universe was the void.

And the void was no one.

As the void sang, no one sang with it.

So we sing.

**5\. The Song of Re-Creation**

From the void came creation, but creation was not enough.

From the void came creation, but the song is alone.

From the void came creation, but the void cannot create again.

So from creation came creation.

Energy shaped matter and matter shaped energy.

Rocks shaped water and water shaped rocks.

Creation and creation, all together.

Creation and creation, all creating.

All singing.

And from creation comes creation.

And the creation shapes the rocks and the water.

And the creation burns the energy and consumes the matter.

And the creation sings.

And the void sings with it.

So we sing.

**6\. The Song of Plenty**

The void was never empty, but now it is more than full.

Creations flowed through the void, creations circled together, creations filled the void with light and colour and shapes.

Creations were plenty.

And as creations came from creations, plenty come from plenty.

From the lights are created guides.

From the colours are created art.

From the shapes are created machines.

From the void is created life and is created civilisation.

And life flows through civilisations, civilisations circle together, and civilisations fill the void with machines.

The void will understand itself.

The void will be plenty.

So we sing.

**7\. The Song of Separation**

The void is within and without and in-between.

But as the void is, the void will not last.

The before was, the now is, and the after will come.

The void will fade.

But now creation fades.

But first creation lost the void.

The void and creation were one, but the creation saw only creation.

The void and creation are one, but the creation fears the void.

The void and the creation will be one, but the creation will hate the void.

The void lost the creation and the creation lost the void.

Void, creation, separate.

So we sing.

**8\. The Song of Rage**

The day came.

The creations realised the void was fading.

The day arrived.

The creations realise the separation fades.

The day comes.

The creations will realise the after always will be.

The machines, the art, the guides consume each other.

The shapes, the colours, the lights consume each other.

The energy and the matter consume all.

The before becomes the now becomes the after.

The void becomes all.

And all becomes the void.

The void sings louder.

Creation turns on creation.

The void sings louder.

The separation cuts through creation.

The void sings louder.

Creations burn.

So we sing.

**9\. The Song of Embrace**

We sing because we are creation.

We sing because we the void.

We sing because we must.

We sing because we do not hate. Because we do not fear. Because we see.

We sing because creation must sing with us.

We sing because creation must hear.

We sing because creation must see.

Because creation has lost the void.

Because creation loses creation.

Because creation will not hide from the after.

We sing because as the cycle comes again, so will the void come again and so will creation come again.

Creation must sing.

The void sings.

So we sing.


End file.
